Posts Tagged ‘keynote’

Like you, Cisco managers are thinking about how to sell AV systems. Tomorrow and 10 years from tomorrow.

At a time when IT networks are finally delivering what we imagined when we first heard of Novell, it’s clear that media networks are the next frontier–selling AV systems means selling networked AV. Naturally that’s Cisco’s viewpoint; the company is investing hard in making it a reality and that investment will impact this market.

It is already a reality to some extent. AV is no longer just about content presentation, display, and playback (although that remains a key expertise because quality matters more than ever). But it is also about content distribution to destinations and devices of all kinds that are constantly changing, depending on audience and business case. Modern AV networks will move audio and video internally inside an organization (telepresence, training, user-generated video) and externally to customers and partners (telepresence digital signage and messaging to mobile devices).

This means, says Cisco’s Thomas Wyatt, that AV experts and IT experts will be mutually dependent, not only to make systems work but to drive the AV market itself and to generate the business that keeps us all in business.

Wyatt is VP and GM of Cisco’s Digital Media Systems business unit, part of a larger Emerging Technologies Group (ETG) led by Senior VP Marthin De Beer who will give Infocomm’s first-ever keynote address on Tuesday. Wyatt led the acquisition of the digital signage company Tivella in 2007 and works intimately with AV systems integrators and the product line that will be on display at Cisco’s booth (C5802). Read the rest of this entry »